“Yeah, the rings,” she says during a recent L. A. interview promoting the last in the saga, Breaking Dawn – Part 2, which opens Nov. 16.

There’s the wedding-related ring when Edward (Robert Pattinson) marries Stewart’s Bella in Breaking Dawn – Part 1. And, there was another ring.

“Bella’s mother gives her a moon ring in the beginning,” notes the actress, referring to a scene in 2008’s Twilight.

Stewart kept both of those film props as a bit of nostalgia, especially the moon ring. “It fully and completely reminds me of Catherine Hardwicke,” she says of the Twilight director who first cast Stewart, Pattinson and Lautner.

Back then, nobody anticipated the Twilight movie frenzy. Stewart went after the Bella role because she was impressed with Hardwicke’s film, Thirteen. English actor Pattinson thought Twilight would be a below-the-radar way to introduce himself to American audiences. Lautner decided the action would cool.

At first, the cast and crew received only hints of the attention to follow when fans started showing up at filming locations in and around Portland, Oregon.

Then came Comic-Con in San Diego the summer before the Twilight release.

“It’s grown so much, even recently, so I don’t know if I will ever realize the extent that it’s gotten to,” Stewart says.

“But that Comic-Con, for me, was the first time I was ever hit with a wave of human energy. And I was like, ‘This is not a normal movie.’ It felt like something that was so very much our own.”

Before that big promotional debut, Stewart had no idea how powerful the bond was going to be.

“That first dose of seeing that other people were as affected by (Twilight) as you was mind blowing,” she admits. “It’s the coolest thing. I’m still incredibly overwhelmed, admittedly, but it was the greatest part of the job.”

I am the Postmedia News movie writer and canada.com columnist. I prepare features and profiles stars of major motion pictures, including Robert Downey Jr., George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Julia Roberts... read more. Previously, I was a movie writer for Postmedia's National Post. I was at the George Lucas farm near San Francisco to report on the last Star Wars picture, Revenge of the Sith. I was in New York for the first preview of Peter Jackson's King Kong remake. And I have been up close and personal with high profile A-listers such as Cameron Diaz, Matt Damon, Jennifer Aniston and many others. Before that, I was a sleep-deprived pop music writer and critic, a film writer and reviewer, and entertainment editor at the Toronto Sun. I also worked at CBC as a writer and producer, and was one of five writers selected to produce the script for the CBC's Canada For Asia live tsunami benefit broadcast in 2005.View author's profile